Can you name a company on pace to do $100 million in sales volume, owned by Black men under the age of 35? Three Black entrepreneurs in the Washington, DC area (DMV) are doing just that through their real estate firm, Coalition Properties Group. The number is staggering but the lesson these men are teaching us is even more powerful — coalition beats competition. Harrison Beacher, Ryan Butler and Keith James didn’t need to start a company together. As individuals they were doing just fine but together, they are on a trajectory to do billions in the real life version of Monopoly.
Coalition Properties Group (CPG) has yet to reach the 12 month mark in its short history and already they’ve eclipsed what most will achieve in a lifetime of business. But none of this was birthed out of any level of necessity. Harrison Beacher serves as a National Director of The National Association of Realtors, which represents 1,4 million members nationwide. Beacher was featured in Realtor Magazine’s 30 under 30 Class of 2016, an honor for which hundreds of thousands across the country competed. Ryan Butler had his own IT consulting firm and was already active in real estate, well before CPG was founded. Keith James bought his first property at the age of 23 and in his first year as a full time realtor, was honored with the much coveted “Rookie of the Year” award, given to the top first year seller in the DMV market; Keith did $20 million in sales that year, in fact. All three would have been perfectly fine as competitors but as a coalition, the sky’s the limit.
Coalition Properties Group helps individuals buy and sell real estate in the DMV area. The firm buys residential properties and also flips them. They assist clients who are seeking to buy a home, also. What makes the firm different, however, is that their interaction with clients only begins with buying and selling homes. CPG’s goal is to be the bridge to the community for all things real estate, lifestyle, and wealth-building. The Founders literally do some of everything, for their clients. Some days they are helping people find jobs. On others, they help people rehab their credit. CPG conducts wealth building seminars, classes on financial literacy, teaches people how to invest and create generational wealth. While most agencies simply look to make a dollar off their clients, CPG is actually positioning their clients to get more dollars. The founders of CPG are not typical men and thus their company isn’t, either.
The values of CPG are rooted not in commerce but somewhere down deep — literally. Keith is a native of Columbus, MS and a graduate of Tuskegee University, where he learned the power of the collective. Harrison was born in Augusta, GA, where his family instilled in him the values of hard work and honesty. Ryan is from the Mississippi Delta, a region of the world that produces people of true character, like Fannie Lou Hamer. Ryan, Harrison and Keith are men of integrity first, then businessmen. Their guiding principles and vision made clear to the trio that the best path for them and their people was coalition, not competition. Each day CPG is proving the point and in doing so, helping to build a table for others who look like them in the greatest opportunity business in the world — real estate. You can connect with CPG on IG here.